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food prices

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says the world’s major food commodity prices fell again in May to the lowest level in nearly six years amid a favourable outlook for this year’s harvests.

In a press statement, FAO states that its food price index averaged 166.8 points in May, down 1.4 percent from April and as much as 20.7 percent from a year earlier.

Driving his pick-up truck down a dirt road, farmer Petrus Roux points to scorched fields that should be a sea of green maize, part of South Africa's western grain belt.

The worst drought in over a hundred years has devastated crops and could tip the economy into recession, adding to a loss of investor faith in President Jacob Zuma, pushing up food prices and possibly stoking social and racial tensions ahead of local elections.

The Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (PACSA) Minimum Food Basket in March 2015 for a family of four members increased from R2 155.62 to R2 170.04, a R14.42 or 0.67 percent month-on-month increase. This increase in the cost of a basket of food has to be considered against the increasing price trends in the International Commodity prices for staple foods and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) food month-on-month increases (up for the third month since January) and importantly against the backdrop of the urgent debate on minimum wages.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says food prices rose in September 2012 and are seen remaining close to levels reached during the 2008 food crisis.

In the same vein, aid agency, Oxfam, has called on governments to tackle the root causes of food price volatility.

In a press statement, Oxfam spokesperson, Colin Roche, points out that, "They [countries] need to boost food reserves and strengthen social protection programmes for populations that are at risk of hunger.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, say the prices for rice, wheat and other key foods are expected to remain volatile and possibly increase.

In their annual report on global food insecurity, the three agencies say poor farmers and consumers, particularly in Africa, will be most affected.

FAO Agricultural and Development Economics Division director, Kostas Stamoulis, says prices are expected to remain higher and more volatile.